(This story was updated because an earlier version included an inaccuracy.)
Ja’Marr Chase is now the proud owner of buoyancy organs from a cephalopod.
You read that right.
The Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver got a special delivery from a Cincinnati Museum Center staffer while signing autographs at training camp, which kicked off July 23 at the practice fields outside Paycor Stadium.
In a video posted by the Museum Center, marketing and communications manager Joey Talmage approaches Chase saying, “Hey, I brought a dinosaur tooth for Joe (Burrow),” before revealing he brought buoyancy organs for the wide receiver, too.
The buoyancy organs came from cephalopods, a class of marine animals, from New Zealand, Talmage told Chase.
“I want a dinosaur tooth. I want something for my house too, man. Joe got all this cool stuff at his house,” Chase said about Burrow, who is a confirmed “nerd” about dinosaurs and fossils.
The wide receiver later confirmed Burrow’s quirk when asked by the press after day No. 2 of camp July 24.
“He’s very interested in fossils, I don’t know why. He loves dinosaur tooths and bones,” he said.
Chase added that the 70-million-year-old dinosaur tooth gifted by the Museum Center was, in fact, delivered to Burrow. The fossil and the organs are part of Talmage’s personal collection.
“He got really excited. That demeanor on his face shows that he’s still a kid and stuff like that,” Chase said.
The quarterback’s childlike obsession with fossils has been well documented in interviews and on TV.
Burrow’s stylist Kyle Smith called the Bengals quarterback a “huge nerd” in a 2024 interview with The Enquirer, saying, “We went to the Amiri fashion show and was outside the Natural History Museum in Paris, and that was like the most exciting part of the whole thing, was being that close to the Natural History Museum. And we nerded out about dinosaurs for like 30 minutes.”
The two-time Pro Bowler’s fossil interest is also featured in Netflix’s “Quarterback” docuseries, when Burrow is overheard at a Bengals practice gushing about the team’s trip to the Field Museum in Chicago, where they saw an archaeopteryx dinosaur fossil.
“Why were fossils on my mind? I don’t know, cause they’re cool,” Burrow said in an interview in the episode. “When aren’t fossils on your mind? They go back millions of years. That’s sick.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Joe Burrow receives fossil from Museum Center staffer: ‘He loves dinosaur tooths’
Reporting by Grace Tucker, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
